Ephesians 3:7Plain English VersionGod was really good to me. He used his power to help me to be strong. Then he gave me this special job. I have to tell people this good news about Jesus. See the chapter |
and he picked me out to be a worker for Jesus Christ. My job is to tell the good news about Jesus to people that are not Jews. After I tell them that good news, God’s spirit works in them to make them good and right, and God is really happy with them. It is like I give them to God, like a really good gift.
But God was very good to me. He changed me and made me the way I am now. And so more people heard the good news about Jesus. You see, I’ve worked harder than any of his other special workers. But it wasn’t really me that did that work. No. It was God that gave me the power to do his work, so he is the one that did it.
Just think about Apollos and me, Paul. We are not important bosses. We are only workers for God. God gave each of us our jobs, and we helped you believe in Jesus Christ. I’ll use picture talk now. Think about a garden. One worker plants seeds, and another worker puts water on the young plants to help them grow properly. But it is God that makes the seeds grow up to be big plants. The worker that plants the seeds is not important, and the worker that gives water to the plants is not important. The important one is God. He makes the plants grow. Well, that picture story about a garden is a picture of you mob. God is making you grow like he makes those plants grow. And Apollos and me, we work in God’s team, just like those workers in that garden. I started telling you about Jesus, and Apollos taught you more about him. We both want you to have life, but we can’t give you new life. God is the one that gives you new life. We are just his workers, and you know, God will pay each of us for our work.
We have to thank God now. His power works in us, and he does really great things. He can do a lot more than we can ask him for. He can even do more than we can think about. And we are God’s people. We are his church. So we always have to praise God and show everyone that he is very great and good. We have to show them what Jesus Christ does, and that he is really great. And we have to keep on doing it for ever and ever. Yes, that’s right.
I’m not important. All of God’s people are more important than me. But God was good to me, and he gave me this special job. He sent me to tell the people that are not Jews about the really great things that Jesus Christ can give them. These things are so great that nobody can understand them properly.
And we always thank God for the way you listened to us. We told you God’s message, and you knew that it wasn’t only a message from people. You believed that we told you words from God, and that it was God’s message. And you were right. It is God’s word. And now that you believe that word, it helps you grow strong for him.